38 MAMMALIA. 
His external ear, possessing but little mobility or extent, does not increase 
the intensity of sounds; and yet, of all animals, he best distinguishes the 
various degrees of intonation. His nostrils, more complicated than those 
of the monkey, are less so than those of all other genera; and yet he ap- 
pears to be the only animal whose sense of smell is sufficiently delicate to 
be affected by unpleasant odours. Delicacy of smell must have some in- 
fluence on that of taste; and, independently of this, Man must have some 
advantage in this respect over other animals, those, at least, whose tongues 
are covered with scales. Lastly, the nicety of his tact results both from 
the delicacy of his teguments and the absence of all insensible parts, as 
well as from the form of his hand, which is better adapted than that of 
any other animal for suiting itself to every little superficial Inequality. 
Man is pre-eminently distinguished in the organ of his voice; of all the 
Mammalia, he alone possesses the faculty of articulating sounds, its pro- 
bable causes being the form of his mouth and the great mobility of his lips. 
From this results his most invaluable mode of communication; for, of all the 
signs which can be conveniently employed for the transmission of ideas, 
variations of sound are those which can be perceived at the greatest dis- 
tance, aud are the most extensive in their sphere of operation. 
The whole of his structure, even to the heart and great vessels, appears 
to have been framed with a view to a vertical position. The heart is placed 
obliquely on the diaphragm, and its point inclines to the left, thereby 
occasioning a distribution of the aorta, differing from that of most quad- 
rupeds, 
The natural food of man, judging from his structure, appears to consist 
of the fruits, roots, and other succulent parts of vegetables: his hands of- 
fer him every facility for gathering them; his short, and but moderately 
strong jaws on the one hand, and his canini being equal in length to the 
remaining teeth, and his tubercular molares on the other, would allow him 
neither to feed on grass nor to devour flesh, were these aliments not pre- 
viously prepared by cooking. Once, however, possessed of fire, and those 
arts by which he is aided in seizing animals or killing them at a distance, 
every living being was rendered subservient to his nourishment, thereby 
giving him the means of an infinite multiplication of his species. 
His organs of digestion are in conformity with those of manducation; 
his stomach is simple, his intestinal canal of moderate length, the great in- 
testines well marked, his cecum short and thick and augmented by a small 
appendage, and his liver divided only into two large lobes and one small one; 
his epiploon hangs in front of the intestines, and extends into the pelvis. 
To complete the hasty sketch of the anatomical structure of Man requisite 
~for this introduction, we will add, that he has thirty-two vertebra, of which 
seven belong to the neck, twelve to the back, five to the loins, five to the 
sacrum, and three to the coccyx. Seven pairs of his ribs are united with 
the sternum by elongated cartilages, and are called true ribs; the five fol- 
lowing pairs are denominated false ones. His adult cranium is formed of 
eight bones; an occipitalis, two ossa temporis, two parietalia, and the 
frontal, ethmoidal and sphenoidal bones. The bones of his face are four- 
teen in number, two maxillaries, two ossa mal, each of which joins the 
temporal to the maxillary bone of its own side by a kind of handle called 
the zygomatic arch; two nasal bones, two ossa palati behind the palate, a 
vomer between the nostrils, two turbinated bones of the nose in the nos- 
